Seat structures as provided, in vans, motor homes and like vehicles typically employ a pedestal-type mounting assembly which attaches to the vehicle floor and mounts thereon the seat. The pedestal mounting assembly also typically employs a structure for permitting swiveling of the seat, such being conventional.
In many situations it is desirable to provide a seat pedestal mounting assembly which permits tilting of the seat into a "folded" position, such as for facilitating access into or out of the vehicle or servicing of the vehicle. To achieve this folding capability, U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,917 illustrates a seat pedestal employing an inverted boxlike structure which is hinged along the one side thereof to the vehicle floor, and which has an interior pivoted hook adapted for engagement with a U-shaped member secured to the floor to hence fixedly latch the pedestal to the vehicle floor. With this arrangement, release of the hook enables the seat arrangement to be pivoted into a folded position about the hinge pin which extends along one edge of the pedestal. This arrangement, however, is such as to permit total detachment of the seat pedestal only in a laborious and complex manner. More specifically, the edge of the seat pedestal has a pair of spaced hinge knuckles which in turn straddle a further pair of hinge knuckles secured to the vehicle floor, and a single elongate hinge pin extends through these hinge knuckles to hingedly secured the pedestal to the floor. When total detachment of the pedestal from the floor is desired, such is possible only by wholly sidewardly removing the hinge pin from all of the aligned hinge knuckles, and such normally requires use of a tool or other device in order to permit removal of the hinge pin. Such is a complex and labor extensive operation, and requires use of a hammer or like tool, and also requires use of a tool to facilitate removal of a cotter pin which is typically mounted in the free end of the hinge pin.
To facilitate mounting and demounting of a seat pedestal relative to the vehicle floor, U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,126 illustrates a pedestal having a pair of enlarged tabs or flanges which project outWardly from one edge thereof for insertion into and outwardly beyond openings formed in the vehicle floor. The pedestal has a latching handle associated with the other edge thereof so that it is adapted to be inserted through an opening in the floor, with the handle then being rotated to secure the pedestal to the floor. While this arrangement does facilitate mounting and demounting of the pedestal relative to the floor, nevertheless when the handle is released, then the seat pedestal does not possess any hinge structure which permits folding of the seat since any such folding results in the tabs on the pedestal being at least partially withdrawn from the floor openings.
Another van-type pedestal assembly for a seat is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,952. The arrangement of this latter patent is designed to permit both tilting of the seat and removal of the seat without requiring tools. With this arrangement, however, after the lock mechanism has been released, the hinge pins are disposed within elongated slots so that when it desired to fold the seat, the hinge pins are not always positively confined, and thus this increases the risk of the seat accidentally becoming disconnected from the floor. Further, when total disconnection is desired, the entire seat and attached pedestal must be vertically lifted upwardly through vertical slots, and hence this increases the required degree of manual manipulation and effort.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a seat mounting assembly which improves upon and overcomes disadvantages associated with prior seat mounting pedestals, such as the disadvantages noted above.
More specifically, the improved seat pedestal is intended to provide a hinge structure for providing a positive structural yet hinged connection between one edge of the pedestal and the vehicle floor so as to permit positive hinging movement therebetween when folding of the seat arrangement is desired, and yet at the same time provide a releasable latch cooperating between the other edge of the pedestal and the floor to permit fixed securement of the pedestal to the floor in a manner which is structurally and operationally simple. At the same time, the hinge structure can, after release of the latch, be itself easily and readily disconnected without requiring complex manipulations or tools so as to permit total demounting of the seat pedestal if desired.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons familiar with structures of this general type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.